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THROUGH the POWER of LAW Our Mission We Use the Power of Law to Advance Reproductive Rights As Fundamental Human Rights Around the World

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THROUGH the POWER of LAW Our Mission We Use the Power of Law to Advance Reproductive Rights As Fundamental Human Rights Around the World IGNITING CHANGE THROUGH THE POWER OF LAW Our Mission We use the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world. Our Vision We envision a world where every person participates as an equal member of society with dignity, regardless of gender; where every woman is free to decide whether or when to have children and whether to marry; where access to quality reproductive © 2018 Center for Reproductive Rights Printed in the United States health care is guaranteed; and where Any part of this report may be copied, translated, or adapted with permission women can make these decisions free from the author, provided that the parts copied are distributed free or at cost from coercion or discrimination. (not for profit) and the Center for Reproductive Rights is acknowledged as the author. Any commercial reproduction requires prior written permission from the author. The Center for Reproductive Rights would appreciate receiving a copy of any materials in which information from this report is used. Center for Reproductive Rights 199 Water Street, 22nd Floor New York, New York 10038 Tel +1 917 637 3600 Fax +1 917 637 3666 ReproductiveRights.org 2018 ANNUAL REPORT It’s been an extraordinary year. Around the world, we used the power of the law to ignite momentous change. Yet it was also a year in which we faced an environment increasingly hostile to women’s rights in the United States, and globally, we saw regressive policies take root. As we face these shifts, the Center’s unique strategy is more crucial than ever, and we are especially grateful that you are with us. Even in the darkest times, we rely on the power of the law to advance justice. In the face of a reconfigured U.S. Supreme Court, we are already building our plans to defend Roe v. Wade. We are creating powerful, innovative legislative and litigation strategies to combat burdensome laws at the state level in the U.S. And in some of the most challenging political landscapes around the world, we are working with partners to create and advance protections that help every woman and girl live a free and healthy life. With major victories in Ireland and Kenya this year, we have much to celebrate—and we must not forget that. We build all our future successes on these hard-fought wins, each one a critical building block in the long-term strategies we employ to build an international legal framework that will secure our most precious rights: the rights to autonomy, equality, life, health, and dignity—everywhere in the world. Please know your steadfast support fuels our fire to keep on fighting. Nancy Northup, President & CEO Kathleen Tait, Board Chair 5 CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 2018 ANNUAL REPORT TAKING A HISTORIC STEP FORWARD IN IRELAND Abortion has been illegal in Ireland since 1861, meaning that thousands of Irish women have been forced to leave their country every year to secure abortion care. We represented two of these women, Amanda Mellet and Siobhán My daughter is Whelan, when they took it upon themselves not going to grow to pursue justice, and brought their cases to the UN Human Rights Committee. The “ up in Ireland like landmark rulings in both cases decreed that I experienced. the abortion ban violated women’s human That’s going to rights, and directed the Irish government to be in the history undertake reforms. In May 2018, Irish voters books for her.” overwhelmingly supported amending the Constitution to strike the ban, paving the way Amanda Mellet, for the government to introduce legislation plaintiff in Mellet v. Ireland permitting abortion. Image: Honorees Amanda Mellet and Siobhán Whelan accepting Changemaker awards at the Center’s annual Gala in October. 7 CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS The ruling is a SECURING A “ landmark and a source of VICTORY FOR encouragement for the thousands MATERNAL HEALTH of mothers out there who went through IN KENYA something similar. This is victory A woman in labor in a Bungoma, Kenya, hospital for all of us.” was denied care, forced to deliver her child on the floor, and then subjected to abuse by the Josephine Majani, hospital staff, who were caught on video slapping plaintiff in Josephine Majani v. Attorney and screaming at her. We represented the General et al woman, Josephine Majani, before the Bungoma High Court, and won a landmark victory. The decision called out the hospital for grossly infringing upon Josephine’s “rights to health and dignity,” and for failing to allocate the resources required to put in place minimum standards for maternal healthcare services. The ruling is an important step forward in our ongoing fight to ensure that all women have access to quality, respectful maternal care, and our victory was built on a previous maternal-health win in Brazil. 8 9 2018 ANNUAL REPORT STRIKING DOWN BURDENSOME LAWS IN TEXAS Texas legislators have been working overtime to pass laws meant to restrict access to abortion, by creating undue burdens for women seeking abortion services—and we have been fighting back, every step of the way. After we went to court to challenge a measure requiring health care providers to bury or cremate all embryonic Make no mistake, tissue from abortions, miscarriages, and ectopic “ these restrictions pregnancy surgeries, the United States District were designed to Court for the Western District of Texas permanently shame and stigmatize struck down the cruel and extreme measure. patients and health We are on the front lines of the ongoing fight to care providers.” protect Texas women’s right to end a pregnancy. Amy Hagstrom Miller, Center client, Founder and President of Whole Woman’s Health, and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance 11 CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS FREEING WRONGLY IMPRISONED WOMEN IN EL SALVADOR In El Salvador, many women who suffer stillbirths or miscarriages are sentenced to decades behind bars, wrongly convicted of having had abortions, which are illegal under the country’s draconian anti-abortion law. This year, we secured the release of two more women who had been imprisoned after their own obstetric emergencies. After almost 15 years in prison, Teodora del Keep supporting each Carmen Vásquez and Maira Veronica Figueroa “ one of these women— walked free to rejoin their families and re-start they also want to be their lives. with their children, and with their families.” María Teresa Rivera, Center client who was jailed for almost five years after suffering a stillbirth 12 2018 ANNUAL REPORT 1313 2018 ANNUAL REPORT Today’s ruling is the first step in ENSURING ACCESS “ correcting a generations-long TO CARE FOR offense affecting millions in Virginia. ALL WOMEN The laws we have challenged lack Throughout the southern United States, any legitimate we are fighting to strike down TRAP (Targeted justification, medical Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws, which or otherwise. They impose needless restrictions, the goal of which should not, and is solely to make it difficult or impossible cannot, stand.” for abortion providers to offer care. Many of these laws have been on the books for Jenny Ma, years in Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, disproportionately affecting low-income Senior Staff Attorney at the Center, commenting on a September court ruling women, young women, and women of color. Our victories help keep clinics open so women can get the care they need. 15 CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS PROTECTING ACCESS TO BIRTH CONTROL When the Trump administration attempted on many fronts to deny women access to birth Because I had access control in defiance of the Affordable Care Act’s to contraception at guarantee of cost-free contraceptive coverage, “ no extra cost, I was we sued the administration. Through litigation, better able to take advocacy, and a public awareness campaign, care of myself and we led the charge, working with partners across finish a doctoral degree the country and engaging the public to demand without an unplanned that the ACA provision securing women’s access pregnancy—which to contraception not be impeded. And we also would certainly have filed suit against the federal government and delayed my degree or the University of Notre Dame for their unlawful prevented me from agreement to allow the University to deny students, employees, and their dependents finishing at all.” insurance coverage for birth control, in addition Excerpt from an Indianapolis woman’s to challenging the administration’s unlawful rules comment to the U.S. Department of that undermine the right to contraceptive coverage Health and Human Services expressing on a national scale. opposition to the Trump administration’s birth control rules 16 17 2018 ANNUAL REPORT The erasure of reporting and DEMANDING COMPLETE “ data on women and girls’ reproductive REPORTING FROM U.S. rights is tantamount to an outright DEPARTMENT OF STATE rejection of the basic principle In the spring, the United States Department of that reproductive State stripped reproductive health and rights rights are human from its annual country reports on human rights.” rights. We filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that demanded an explanation Stephanie L. Schmid, for the removal of these vital statistics from U.S. Foreign Policy Counsel at the Center the human rights reports. We then sued the Department when it did not respond to our request as required by law—and we intend to keep pressing until we get answers. This information and data are critical measures for tracking the health and well-being of women and girls worldwide, and must be included in the reports in order to keep governments from de-prioritizing the health care women need. 19 CENTER FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 2018 ANNUAL REPORT OUR FINANCIALS PRO BONO In our Pro Bono Allen & Overy Law Offices of Patrick J.
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